5 month old breastfed baby won't take a bottle

mary1978

i have an almost 5 month old baby who has been exclusively breast fed.
when he was 2months old we gave him a bottle of expressed milk most evenings to get him used to a bottle for about a month but then with moving house, him being sick a few times and me being lazy we stopped doing it. he now point blank refuses a bottle. he never liked it even during that month and wont take a soother either.
i would really like him to start using a bottle again, or a sippy cup, so that i can leave him for the day with his dad from time to time or so we can go out for a meal sometime.
any tips on how to get him using a bottle or using a sippy cup?
he is able to hold the cup and bring to mouth and sucks on the mouthpiece but doesn't know how to get milk out yet...
if i hold it and tip it up so milk comes into his mouth he decides he is no longer interested and pushes it away...

any help hugely appreciated!

Boom_Bap

We had a similar issue with our first, but we changed the teats on the bottle and that sorted it out for us. We used the Tommee Tippee ones like here - http://www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/easivent-bottle/

littlemissfixit

I done the same, my son had a bottle a day for a few weeks and then I got lazy and he refused it then. He was only just after 3 months when I tried again and really the only solution I found was to stick to my guns. I chose a time that wouldnt disrupt his day to much (not before a sleep, or evening time etc.) and just offered the bottle, left it for 5 mins when he got upset, offered it again... and so on. The first time he took it after about 15 min. and then it only took a couple of days and he wasn't objecting at all anymore. It was a bit upsetting of course, but the end justified the means.
That is, you can try someone else giving it if its always you that attempted it, it works for some people.
I used the freeflow tommy tippee cups 4mths+ with my daughter from 4 mths and she got on with them perfect. I've tried them again with my son, its been about 3 wks now and he still wont drink more than about 2 oz with them, he doesn't like them at all... trial and error I suppose. I will try him with different cup this week.

Supercell

Our little fella is exactly the same. At six months we tried to wean him onto the bottle but he was having none of it.
Instead we mix the aptamil up with cooked rice, veg and fruit into a soupy mush and he just loves that (most of the time). He's 9 months now and cutting tooth number 7 at the moment and sometimes only the boob will do. My wife is still feeding him in the morning and last thing at night but that's a massive drop from the feeding on demand that she was doing up to six months.
We also give him as much juice (lemon and lime tesco dilutable stuff seems to be his favourite)as he will take during the day - he likes to hold the glass and lets us pour ,mostly down his front truth be told!, and wipe his teeth several times a day with a muslin cloth to try and keep his teeth as clean as possible.
Its hard to get it all right, I'd say just try what works for you, as long as the liquid is getting in he should be grand.

annegreen

My first baby only moved to the bottle at 8 months but it was a gradual transition.